Born to Garden

Osceola woman has grown flowers and vegetables for years

Osceola woman has grown flowers and vegetables for years

August 04, 2007|SUE LOWE Tribune Staff Writer

OSCEOLA -- Bernice Kerrn gets up about 5 a.m. She does some embroidery and listens to the news on television. When it gets light outside, she goes out to work in her garden. She tries to get back inside by noon but is usually back working in the garden after supper. You won't find many people spending that much time in the garden, particularly people who are 82 years old. "I was born and raised on a farm," Kerrn said as she sat sorting through flowers to make bouquets to sell at her roadside stand. "I've always had a garden." "I got married and had a couple of kids, and I gardened and canned and froze food," Kerrn continued. Her former husband has passed away, and her daughter married and moved out. Only she and her son live there now. But she basically can't quit gardening. "I guess it's something born in me," Kerrn said. About 10 years ago, her late neighbor suggested they get together and set up a roadside stand on Beech Road north of Edison Road. Both always raised more food than they and their families could eat. The neighbor quit after he became ill, and Kerrn has been selling her produce alone since then. She cans some tomatoes for herself, her son and a couple of nieces. Everything she doesn't sell, can or freeze goes to the Food Bank of Northern Indiana. The food bank also gets the zucchini that just got too big before Kerrn picked them. One weighed in at 9 pounds. Kerrn plants some seeds, seeds she saved from plants that do really well. She also buys a lot of bedding plants. When St. Joseph County crews picked up leaves throughout the county, they used to drop off enough for her to mulch her acre-and-a-half gardens. Now that's done by a private company, so she doesn't get her free mulch any more. A neighbor drops off enough leaves to mulch the potatoes, but that's it. The money Kerrn makes at the roadside stand lets her supplement her Social Security. After she shuts down the stand in September, she starts quilting, custom sewing and mending. Then in late April or early May she starts up the garden again. If you or somebody you know has an unusual garden, contact Sue Lowe at slowe@sbtinfo.com or (574) 235-6557. Staff writer Sue Lowe: slowe@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6557